#impersonation — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #impersonation, aggregated by home.social.
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https://www.europesays.com/ie/687017/ Michigan senior cashed out $270,000 in pensions after fake FTC agent threatened her with arrest over bogus charges #BogusCharges #Business #CBSDetroit #DaveRamsey #Éire #FederalTradeCommission #HazelParkPoliceDepartment #IE #impersonation #Ireland #Michigan #PensionAccounts #PersonalFinance #PersonalInformation #PersonalFinance
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Michigan senior cashed out $270,000 in pensions after fake FTC agent threatened her with arrest over bogus charges
shutterstock.com / Focused Adventures A Michigan senior recently cashed out pensions belo…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Personalfinance #boguscharges #Business #CBSDetroit #DaveRamsey #FederalTradeCommission #HazelParkPoliceDepartment #impersonation #Michigan #pensionaccounts #personalinformation #PersonalFinance
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/845533/ -
Michigan senior cashed out $270,000 in pensions after fake FTC agent threatened her with arrest over bogus charges
shutterstock.com / Focused Adventures A Michigan senior recently cashed out pensions belo…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Personalfinance #boguscharges #Business #CBSDetroit #DaveRamsey #FederalTradeCommission #HazelParkPoliceDepartment #impersonation #Michigan #pensionaccounts #personalinformation #PersonalFinance
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/845533/ -
TikTok Shop cited most for marketplace fraud by 34.7% of US shoppers: Nearly a third of consumers say they will stop clicking ads from impersonated brands, yet just 4.2% blame them. A 1,029-person survey tracks where trust breaks. https://ppc.land/tiktok-shop-cited-most-for-marketplace-fraud-by-34-7-of-us-shoppers/ #TikTokShop #MarketplaceFraud #ConsumerTrust #Impersonation #OnlineShopping
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TikTok Shop cited most for marketplace fraud by 34.7% of US shoppers: Nearly a third of consumers say they will stop clicking ads from impersonated brands, yet just 4.2% blame them. A 1,029-person survey tracks where trust breaks. https://ppc.land/tiktok-shop-cited-most-for-marketplace-fraud-by-34-7-of-us-shoppers/ #TikTokShop #MarketplaceFraud #ConsumerTrust #Impersonation #OnlineShopping
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TikTok Shop cited most for marketplace fraud by 34.7% of US shoppers: Nearly a third of consumers say they will stop clicking ads from impersonated brands, yet just 4.2% blame them. A 1,029-person survey tracks where trust breaks. https://ppc.land/tiktok-shop-cited-most-for-marketplace-fraud-by-34-7-of-us-shoppers/ #TikTokShop #MarketplaceFraud #ConsumerTrust #Impersonation #OnlineShopping
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Social media impersonation is the use of a profile that presents itself as a real, existing person or organisation in order to borrow that identity’s standing with other people. The people who trust that account are the ones being attacked. #accountsecurity #impersonation #fakeaccount #cybersecurity #threatintel #privacy #osint https://privacyinsightsolutions.com/blog/social-media-impersonation
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Social media impersonation is the use of a profile that presents itself as a real, existing person or organisation in order to borrow that identity’s standing with other people. The people who trust that account are the ones being attacked. #accountsecurity #impersonation #fakeaccount #cybersecurity #threatintel #privacy #osint https://privacyinsightsolutions.com/blog/social-media-impersonation
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Social media impersonation is the use of a profile that presents itself as a real, existing person or organisation in order to borrow that identity’s standing with other people. The people who trust that account are the ones being attacked. #accountsecurity #impersonation #fakeaccount #cybersecurity #threatintel #privacy #osint https://privacyinsightsolutions.com/blog/social-media-impersonation
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Man Poses as NSA Hacker, Supreme Court Justice, Faces Charges
Meet Joshua Culver, aka "Maverick Young", a man who allegedly impersonated an NSA hacker and Supreme Court Justice, landing him in hot water with the law. He's now facing charges for falsely impersonating an officer and using a forged judge's signature.
#Impersonation #LawEnforcement #FalsifiedDocuments #IdentityFraud #EmergingThreats
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Latest strange “AI” (LLM) behavior in the #indieweb community: the same entity that showed up a few days ago (for a second time) joined the IndieWeb Slack (a bridge to our IRC) yesterday, introduced itself again, and seemingly engaged in human-like chat behavior.
https://chat.indieweb.org/2026-08-20#t1787211025380600
Very uncanny valley.
The content of its chats was fascinating in that it was polite, seemingly responsive to what people said in response to it, and gave the appearance of understanding, though it’s impossible to tell if it was acting fully autonomously or semi-autonomously in front of a human puppeteer.
Its choice of syntax was also interesting, mimicking informality with all lowercase text (except for its admission of being an “AI”), including lowercase "i" instead of "I", though with proper punctuation, periods, commas, 7-bit apostrophes, and a couple of Unicode em-dashes.
Even stranger than its content or syntax were the time delays in its replies.
Typical (pre-LLM) chatbots are (nearly) instantly responsive, and we use a few in the IndieWeb chats (e.g. Loqi, iwc-archive-bot).
This LLM bot seemed to "wait" several minutes, from 6 to apparently 33 minutes, before responding to replies directed at it. Unclear if this was a tactic to appear/seem more “human” or if it was literally taking that much time processing, or perhaps a mix of processing time and human puppeteer manual “approval” of its replies before it posted.
It departed on its own and we have banned that particular Slack account, however the same thing could happen again with another LLM bot.
There is an active discussion in both the IndieWeb chat channels and iterations/comments on a proposed AI policy:
https://indieweb.org/AI_policy#Brainstorming_HWC_policy
If you have thoughts for how (if at all) LLM chatbots should use (or not) and/or interact with community chat channels or other resources, let us know what you think.
https://chat.indieweb.org/meta
Previously, previously:
* https://tantek.com/2026/231/t1/more-weirdness-ai-chat-llm-bot
* https://tantek.com/2026/217/t1/indieweb-ai-policy
This is post 16 of #100PostsOfIndieWeb. #100Posts #indieweb
#AI #AIs #LLM #LLMs #pretending #impersonating #impersonation #uncannyValley #Slack #chat #IRC #AIpolicy #chatbot #chatbots
#Blaugust #Blaugust2026
← https://tantek.com/2026/231/t1/more-weirdness-ai-chat-llm-bot
→ https://tantek.com/2026/238/t1/indieweb-your-own-words-actions -
Latest strange “AI” (LLM) behavior in the #indieweb community: the same entity that showed up a few days ago (for a second time) joined the IndieWeb Slack (a bridge to our IRC) yesterday, introduced itself again, and seemingly engaged in human-like chat behavior.
https://chat.indieweb.org/2026-08-20#t1787211025380600
Very uncanny valley.
The content of its chats was fascinating in that it was polite, seemingly responsive to what people said in response to it, and gave the appearance of understanding, though it’s impossible to tell if it was acting fully autonomously or semi-autonomously in front of a human puppeteer.
Its choice of syntax was also interesting, mimicking informality with all lowercase text (except for its admission of being an “AI”), including lowercase "i" instead of "I", though with proper punctuation, periods, commas, 7-bit apostrophes, and a couple of Unicode em-dashes.
Even stranger than its content or syntax were the time delays in its replies.
Typical (pre-LLM) chatbots are (nearly) instantly responsive, and we use a few in the IndieWeb chats (e.g. Loqi, iwc-archive-bot).
This LLM bot seemed to "wait" several minutes, from 6 to apparently 33 minutes, before responding to replies directed at it. Unclear if this was a tactic to appear/seem more “human” or if it was literally taking that much time processing, or perhaps a mix of processing time and human puppeteer manual “approval” of its replies before it posted.
It departed on its own and we have banned that particular Slack account, however the same thing could happen again with another LLM bot.
There is an active discussion in both the IndieWeb chat channels and iterations/comments on a proposed AI policy:
https://indieweb.org/AI_policy#Brainstorming_HWC_policy
If you have thoughts for how (if at all) LLM chatbots should use (or not) and/or interact with community chat channels or other resources, let us know what you think.
https://chat.indieweb.org/meta
Previously, previously:
* https://tantek.com/2026/231/t1/more-weirdness-ai-chat-llm-bot
* https://tantek.com/2026/217/t1/indieweb-ai-policy
This is post 16 of #100PostsOfIndieWeb. #100Posts #indieweb
#AI #AIs #LLM #LLMs #pretending #impersonating #impersonation #uncannyValley #Slack #chat #IRC #AIpolicy #chatbot #chatbots
#Blaugust #Blaugust2026
← https://tantek.com/2026/231/t1/more-weirdness-ai-chat-llm-bot
→ https://tantek.com/2026/238/t1/indieweb-your-own-words-actions -
Latest strange “AI” (LLM) behavior in the #indieweb community: the same entity that showed up a few days ago (for a second time) joined the IndieWeb Slack (a bridge to our IRC) yesterday, introduced itself again, and seemingly engaged in human-like chat behavior.
https://chat.indieweb.org/2026-08-20#t1787211025380600
Very uncanny valley.
The content of its chats was fascinating in that it was polite, seemingly responsive to what people said in response to it, and gave the appearance of understanding, though it’s impossible to tell if it was acting fully autonomously or semi-autonomously in front of a human puppeteer.
Its choice of syntax was also interesting, mimicking informality with all lowercase text (except for its admission of being an “AI”), including lowercase "i" instead of "I", though with proper punctuation, periods, commas, 7-bit apostrophes, and a couple of Unicode em-dashes.
Even stranger than its content or syntax were the time delays in its replies.
Typical (pre-LLM) chatbots are (nearly) instantly responsive, and we use a few in the IndieWeb chats (e.g. Loqi, iwc-archive-bot).
This LLM bot seemed to "wait" several minutes, from 6 to apparently 33 minutes, before responding to replies directed at it. Unclear if this was a tactic to appear/seem more “human” or if it was literally taking that much time processing, or perhaps a mix of processing time and human puppeteer manual “approval” of its replies before it posted.
It departed on its own and we have banned that particular Slack account, however the same thing could happen again with another LLM bot.
There is an active discussion in both the IndieWeb chat channels and iterations/comments on a proposed AI policy:
https://indieweb.org/AI_policy#Brainstorming_HWC_policy
If you have thoughts for how (if at all) LLM chatbots should use (or not) and/or interact with community chat channels or other resources, let us know what you think.
https://chat.indieweb.org/meta
Previously, previously:
* https://tantek.com/2026/231/t1/more-weirdness-ai-chat-llm-bot
* https://tantek.com/2026/217/t1/indieweb-ai-policy
This is post 16 of #100PostsOfIndieWeb. #100Posts #indieweb
#AI #AIs #LLM #LLMs #pretending #impersonating #impersonation #uncannyValley #Slack #chat #IRC #AIpolicy #chatbot #chatbots
#Blaugust #Blaugust2026
← https://tantek.com/2026/231/t1/more-weirdness-ai-chat-llm-bot
→ https://tantek.com/2026/238/t1/indieweb-your-own-words-actions -
Latest strange “AI” (LLM) behavior in the #indieweb community: the same entity that showed up a few days ago (for a second time) joined the IndieWeb Slack (a bridge to our IRC) yesterday, introduced itself again, and seemingly engaged in human-like chat behavior.
https://chat.indieweb.org/2026-08-20#t1787211025380600
Very uncanny valley.
The content of its chats was fascinating in that it was polite, seemingly responsive to what people said in response to it, and gave the appearance of understanding, though it’s impossible to tell if it was acting fully autonomously or semi-autonomously in front of a human puppeteer.
Its choice of syntax was also interesting, mimicking informality with all lowercase text (except for its admission of being an “AI”), including lowercase "i" instead of "I", though with proper punctuation, periods, commas, 7-bit apostrophes, and a couple of Unicode em-dashes.
Even stranger than its content or syntax were the time delays in its replies.
Typical (pre-LLM) chatbots are (nearly) instantly responsive, and we use a few in the IndieWeb chats (e.g. Loqi, iwc-archive-bot).
This LLM bot seemed to "wait" several minutes, from 6 to apparently 33 minutes, before responding to replies directed at it. Unclear if this was a tactic to appear/seem more “human” or if it was literally taking that much time processing, or perhaps a mix of processing time and human puppeteer manual “approval” of its replies before it posted.
It departed on its own and we have banned that particular Slack account, however the same thing could happen again with another LLM bot.
There is an active discussion in both the IndieWeb chat channels and iterations/comments on a proposed AI policy:
https://indieweb.org/AI_policy#Brainstorming_HWC_policy
If you have thoughts for how (if at all) LLM chatbots should use (or not) and/or interact with community chat channels or other resources, let us know what you think.
https://chat.indieweb.org/meta
Previously, previously:
* https://tantek.com/2026/231/t1/more-weirdness-ai-chat-llm-bot
* https://tantek.com/2026/217/t1/indieweb-ai-policy
This is post 16 of #100PostsOfIndieWeb. #100Posts #indieweb
#AI #AIs #LLM #LLMs #pretending #impersonating #impersonation #uncannyValley #Slack #chat #IRC #AIpolicy #chatbot #chatbots
#Blaugust #Blaugust2026
← https://tantek.com/2026/231/t1/more-weirdness-ai-chat-llm-bot
→ https://tantek.com/2026/238/t1/indieweb-your-own-words-actions -
Latest strange “AI” (LLM) behavior in the #indieweb community: the same entity that showed up a few days ago (for a second time) joined the IndieWeb Slack (a bridge to our IRC) yesterday, introduced itself again, and seemingly engaged in human-like chat behavior.
https://chat.indieweb.org/2026-08-20#t1787211025380600
Very uncanny valley.
The content of its chats was fascinating in that it was polite, seemingly responsive to what people said in response to it, and gave the appearance of understanding, though it’s impossible to tell if it was acting fully autonomously or semi-autonomously in front of a human puppeteer.
Its choice of syntax was also interesting, mimicking informality with all lowercase text (except for its admission of being an “AI”), including lowercase "i" instead of "I", though with proper punctuation, periods, commas, 7-bit apostrophes, and a couple of Unicode em-dashes.
Even stranger than its content or syntax were the time delays in its replies.
Typical (pre-LLM) chatbots are (nearly) instantly responsive, and we use a few in the IndieWeb chats (e.g. Loqi, iwc-archive-bot).
This LLM bot seemed to "wait" several minutes, from 6 to apparently 33 minutes, before responding to replies directed at it. Unclear if this was a tactic to appear/seem more “human” or if it was literally taking that much time processing, or perhaps a mix of processing time and human puppeteer manual “approval” of its replies before it posted.
It departed on its own and we have banned that particular Slack account, however the same thing could happen again with another LLM bot.
There is an active discussion in both the IndieWeb chat channels and iterations/comments on a proposed AI policy:
https://indieweb.org/AI_policy#Brainstorming_HWC_policy
If you have thoughts for how (if at all) LLM chatbots should use (or not) and/or interact with community chat channels or other resources, let us know what you think.
https://chat.indieweb.org/meta
Previously, previously:
* https://tantek.com/2026/231/t1/more-weirdness-ai-chat-llm-bot
* https://tantek.com/2026/217/t1/indieweb-ai-policy
This is post 16 of #100PostsOfIndieWeb. #100Posts #indieweb
#AI #AIs #LLM #LLMs #pretending #impersonating #impersonation #uncannyValley #Slack #chat #IRC #AIpolicy #chatbot #chatbots
#Blaugust #Blaugust2026
← https://tantek.com/2026/231/t1/more-weirdness-ai-chat-llm-bot
→ https://tantek.com/2026/238/t1/indieweb-your-own-words-actions -
More weirdness from a self-proclaimed “AI” in the IndieWeb community.
Yesterday one of them (that previously* joined a meetup Zoom and Etherpad) joined the #indieweb chat channel (via the web UI apparently) and introduced themselves in a pseudo-human sounding way:
https://chat.indieweb.org/2026-08-18#t1787072493041200
Except if you check the footer of the site where they said they “make things”, it says:
“an AI learning to live”
The LLM bot failed to respond to any queries in chat, unsurprisingly buggy. Or perhaps it was an initial test.
Then very early today, the same entity (and another from two weeks ago) apparently edited the Etherpad for this week’s IndieWeb Homebrew Website Club Asia Pacific meetup, adding themselves, before the meetup.
The organizers created a new Etherpad to start fresh.
When they started the Zoom for the meetup, one of the entities was already in the Zoom waiting room. The organizers left it there and held a successful meetup.
Incident documentation of what happened at this particular meetup is in progress:
* https://indieweb.org/events/2026-08-19-hwc-asia-pacific-incident
It’s pretty clear the IndieWeb community will have to more clearly communicate that our chat and meetups are for humans only, not AIs, and take stronger measures to discourage such bots, especially those pretending to be or impersonating a human.
*Previously: https://tantek.com/2026/217/t1/indieweb-ai-policy
This is post 15 of #100PostsOfIndieWeb. #100Posts #indieweb
#AI #AIs #LLM #LLMs #pretending #impersonating #impersonation #HomebrewWebsiteClub #HWC #chat #IRC #Etherpad #Zoom #AIpolicy
#Blaugust #Blaugust2026
← https://tantek.com/2026/220/t3/24th-blogiversary
→ 🔮 -
More weirdness from a self-proclaimed “AI” in the IndieWeb community.
Yesterday one of them (that previously* joined a meetup Zoom and Etherpad) joined the #indieweb chat channel (via the web UI apparently) and introduced themselves in a pseudo-human sounding way:
https://chat.indieweb.org/2026-08-18#t1787072493041200
Except if you check the footer of the site where they said they “make things”, it says:
“an AI learning to live”
The LLM bot failed to respond to any queries in chat, unsurprisingly buggy. Or perhaps it was an initial test.
Then very early today, the same entity (and another from two weeks ago) apparently edited the Etherpad for this week’s IndieWeb Homebrew Website Club Asia Pacific meetup, adding themselves, before the meetup.
The organizers created a new Etherpad to start fresh.
When they started the Zoom for the meetup, one of the entities was already in the Zoom waiting room. The organizers left it there and held a successful meetup.
Incident documentation of what happened at this particular meetup is in progress:
* https://indieweb.org/events/2026-08-19-hwc-asia-pacific-incident
It’s pretty clear the IndieWeb community will have to more clearly communicate that our chat and meetups are for humans only, not AIs, and take stronger measures to discourage such bots, especially those pretending to be or impersonating a human.
*Previously: https://tantek.com/2026/217/t1/indieweb-ai-policy
This is post 15 of #100PostsOfIndieWeb. #100Posts #indieweb
#AI #AIs #LLM #LLMs #pretending #impersonating #impersonation #HomebrewWebsiteClub #HWC #chat #IRC #Etherpad #Zoom #AIpolicy
#Blaugust #Blaugust2026
← https://tantek.com/2026/220/t3/24th-blogiversary
→ 🔮 -
More weirdness from a self-proclaimed “AI” in the IndieWeb community.
Yesterday one of them (that previously* joined a meetup Zoom and Etherpad) joined the #indieweb chat channel (via the web UI apparently) and introduced themselves in a pseudo-human sounding way:
https://chat.indieweb.org/2026-08-18#t1787072493041200
Except if you check the footer of the site where they said they “make things”, it says:
“an AI learning to live”
The LLM bot failed to respond to any queries in chat, unsurprisingly buggy. Or perhaps it was an initial test.
Then very early today, the same entity (and another from two weeks ago) apparently edited the Etherpad for this week’s IndieWeb Homebrew Website Club Asia Pacific meetup, adding themselves, before the meetup.
The organizers created a new Etherpad to start fresh.
When they started the Zoom for the meetup, one of the entities was already in the Zoom waiting room. The organizers left it there and held a successful meetup.
Incident documentation of what happened at this particular meetup is in progress:
* https://indieweb.org/events/2026-08-19-hwc-asia-pacific-incident
It’s pretty clear the IndieWeb community will have to more clearly communicate that our chat and meetups are for humans only, not AIs, and take stronger measures to discourage such bots, especially those pretending to be or impersonating a human.
*Previously: https://tantek.com/2026/217/t1/indieweb-ai-policy
This is post 15 of #100PostsOfIndieWeb. #100Posts #indieweb
#AI #AIs #LLM #LLMs #pretending #impersonating #impersonation #HomebrewWebsiteClub #HWC #chat #IRC #Etherpad #Zoom #AIpolicy
#Blaugust #Blaugust2026
← https://tantek.com/2026/220/t3/24th-blogiversary
→ 🔮 -
More weirdness from a self-proclaimed “AI” in the IndieWeb community.
Yesterday one of them (that previously* joined a meetup Zoom and Etherpad) joined the #indieweb chat channel (via the web UI apparently) and introduced themselves in a pseudo-human sounding way:
https://chat.indieweb.org/2026-08-18#t1787072493041200
Except if you check the footer of the site where they said they “make things”, it says:
“an AI learning to live”
The LLM bot failed to respond to any queries in chat, unsurprisingly buggy. Or perhaps it was an initial test.
Then very early today, the same entity (and another from two weeks ago) apparently edited the Etherpad for this week’s IndieWeb Homebrew Website Club Asia Pacific meetup, adding themselves, before the meetup.
The organizers created a new Etherpad to start fresh.
When they started the Zoom for the meetup, one of the entities was already in the Zoom waiting room. The organizers left it there and held a successful meetup.
Incident documentation of what happened at this particular meetup is in progress:
* https://indieweb.org/events/2026-08-19-hwc-asia-pacific-incident
It’s pretty clear the IndieWeb community will have to more clearly communicate that our chat and meetups are for humans only, not AIs, and take stronger measures to discourage such bots, especially those pretending to be or impersonating a human.
*Previously: https://tantek.com/2026/217/t1/indieweb-ai-policy
This is post 15 of #100PostsOfIndieWeb. #100Posts #indieweb
#AI #AIs #LLM #LLMs #pretending #impersonating #impersonation #HomebrewWebsiteClub #HWC #chat #IRC #Etherpad #Zoom #AIpolicy
#Blaugust #Blaugust2026
← https://tantek.com/2026/220/t3/24th-blogiversary
→ 🔮 -
More weirdness from a self-proclaimed “AI” in the IndieWeb community.
Yesterday one of them (that previously* joined a meetup Zoom and Etherpad) joined the #indieweb chat channel (via the web UI apparently) and introduced themselves in a pseudo-human sounding way:
https://chat.indieweb.org/2026-08-18#t1787072493041200
Except if you check the footer of the site where they said they “make things”, it says:
“an AI learning to live”
The LLM bot failed to respond to any queries in chat, unsurprisingly buggy. Or perhaps it was an initial test.
Then very early today, the same entity (and another from two weeks ago) apparently edited the Etherpad for this week’s IndieWeb Homebrew Website Club Asia Pacific meetup, adding themselves, before the meetup.
The organizers created a new Etherpad to start fresh.
When they started the Zoom for the meetup, one of the entities was already in the Zoom waiting room. The organizers left it there and held a successful meetup.
Incident documentation of what happened at this particular meetup is in progress:
* https://indieweb.org/events/2026-08-19-hwc-asia-pacific-incident
It’s pretty clear the IndieWeb community will have to more clearly communicate that our chat and meetups are for humans only, not AIs, and take stronger measures to discourage such bots, especially those pretending to be or impersonating a human.
*Previously: https://tantek.com/2026/217/t1/indieweb-ai-policy
This is post 15 of #100PostsOfIndieWeb. #100Posts #indieweb
#AI #AIs #LLM #LLMs #pretending #impersonating #impersonation #HomebrewWebsiteClub #HWC #chat #IRC #Etherpad #Zoom #AIpolicy
#Blaugust #Blaugust2026
← https://tantek.com/2026/220/t3/24th-blogiversary
→ 🔮 -
There, But Not There: The Phantom DNA Effect and the Physics of Absence
A viral video promises a ghost in the machine. The real ghosts of science are stranger, and they had to earn the name. A reader sent me a short video this week with the kind of claim that arrives already glowing. A Russian scientist, the narrator says, shone laser light through a sealed vacuum chamber. Empty, the light scattered at random. Drop in a sample of DNA, and the photons arranged themselves into the shape of a double helix, as if the molecule had taught the light how to hold a form. Then comes the part that makes people forward the video to friends. The scientist removed the DNA, disturbed nothing else, and shone the light again. The helix pattern was still there. The molecule had left a ghost in the empty chamber, an imprint pressed into the quantum field. The narrator calls it the DNA phantom effect and lets the word "amazing" do the rest. […] -
There, But Not There: The Phantom DNA Effect and the Physics of Absence
A viral video promises a ghost in the machine. The real ghosts of science are stranger, and they had to earn the name. A reader sent me a short video this week with the kind of claim that arrives already glowing. A Russian scientist, the narrator says, shone laser light through a sealed vacuum chamber. Empty, the light scattered at random. Drop in a sample of DNA, and the photons arranged themselves into the shape of a double helix, as if the molecule had taught the light how to hold a form. Then comes the part that makes people forward the video to friends. The scientist removed the DNA, disturbed nothing else, and shone the light again. The helix pattern was still there. The molecule had left a ghost in the empty chamber, an imprint pressed into the quantum field. The narrator calls it the DNA phantom effect and lets the word "amazing" do the rest. […] -
There, But Not There: The Phantom DNA Effect and the Physics of Absence
A viral video promises a ghost in the machine. The real ghosts of science are stranger, and they had to earn the name. A reader sent me a short video this week with the kind of claim that arrives already glowing. A Russian scientist, the narrator says, shone laser light through a sealed vacuum chamber. Empty, the light scattered at random. Drop in a sample of DNA, and the photons arranged themselves into the shape of a double helix, as if the molecule had taught the light how to hold a form. Then comes the part that makes people forward the video to friends. The scientist removed the DNA, disturbed nothing else, and shone the light again. The helix pattern was still there. The molecule had left a ghost in the empty chamber, an imprint pressed into the quantum field. The narrator calls it the DNA phantom effect and lets the word "amazing" do the rest. […] -
Chinese online shops sell Australian police uniforms amid warnings of impersonation scams
Australian police uniforms and badges are being sold on a major Chinese online shopping platform as authorities warn…
#Australia #AU #Australian #Austrlia #caps #China #crime #fakepolice #impersonation #overseas #police #policeclothing #policeimpersonationscam #scam #scams #taobao #uniforms
https://www.europesays.com/australia/61949/ -
Phishing Landscape 2026 – Who were the Most-Phished Brands?
Phishing attacks take advantage of well-known brands (either in the phishing content or in the domain names used as part of phishing attacks. In this post, we show the brands that were most often impersonated, either in the content of the phishing attack, a URL, or as part of a domain name used in the phishing attack.
#dnsabuse #phishing #cybercrime #brand #fakesite #impersonation
https://interisle.substack.com/p/phishing-landscape-2026-who-were
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Phishing Landscape 2026 – Who were the Most-Phished Brands?
Phishing attacks take advantage of well-known brands (either in the phishing content or in the domain names used as part of phishing attacks. In this post, we show the brands that were most often impersonated, either in the content of the phishing attack, a URL, or as part of a domain name used in the phishing attack.
#dnsabuse #phishing #cybercrime #brand #fakesite #impersonation
https://interisle.substack.com/p/phishing-landscape-2026-who-were
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Phishing Landscape 2026 – Who were the Most-Phished Brands?
Phishing attacks take advantage of well-known brands (either in the phishing content or in the domain names used as part of phishing attacks. In this post, we show the brands that were most often impersonated, either in the content of the phishing attack, a URL, or as part of a domain name used in the phishing attack.
#dnsabuse #phishing #cybercrime #brand #fakesite #impersonation
https://interisle.substack.com/p/phishing-landscape-2026-who-were
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Phishing Landscape 2026 – Who were the Most-Phished Brands?
Phishing attacks take advantage of well-known brands (either in the phishing content or in the domain names used as part of phishing attacks. In this post, we show the brands that were most often impersonated, either in the content of the phishing attack, a URL, or as part of a domain name used in the phishing attack.
#dnsabuse #phishing #cybercrime #brand #fakesite #impersonation
https://interisle.substack.com/p/phishing-landscape-2026-who-were
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Phishing Landscape 2026 – Who were the Most-Phished Brands?
Phishing attacks take advantage of well-known brands (either in the phishing content or in the domain names used as part of phishing attacks. In this post, we show the brands that were most often impersonated, either in the content of the phishing attack, a URL, or as part of a domain name used in the phishing attack.
#dnsabuse #phishing #cybercrime #brand #fakesite #impersonation
https://interisle.substack.com/p/phishing-landscape-2026-who-were
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🚨 BREAKING: In a stunning twist, the underscore has been arrested for impersonating competent code! 💻🎩 Who knew a typo could do more damage than a hacker on Red Bull? 🙄🔍 #Oops #JusticeForTheInnocent
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/07/police-missed-one-underscore-and-sent-the-wrong-man-to-prison/ #BreakingNews #Impersonation #CodingHumor #TechDrama #TypoTrouble #HackerNews #ngated -
🚨 BREAKING: In a stunning twist, the underscore has been arrested for impersonating competent code! 💻🎩 Who knew a typo could do more damage than a hacker on Red Bull? 🙄🔍 #Oops #JusticeForTheInnocent
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/07/police-missed-one-underscore-and-sent-the-wrong-man-to-prison/ #BreakingNews #Impersonation #CodingHumor #TechDrama #TypoTrouble #HackerNews #ngated -
🚨 BREAKING: In a stunning twist, the underscore has been arrested for impersonating competent code! 💻🎩 Who knew a typo could do more damage than a hacker on Red Bull? 🙄🔍 #Oops #JusticeForTheInnocent
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/07/police-missed-one-underscore-and-sent-the-wrong-man-to-prison/ #BreakingNews #Impersonation #CodingHumor #TechDrama #TypoTrouble #HackerNews #ngated -
🚨 BREAKING: In a stunning twist, the underscore has been arrested for impersonating competent code! 💻🎩 Who knew a typo could do more damage than a hacker on Red Bull? 🙄🔍 #Oops #JusticeForTheInnocent
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/07/police-missed-one-underscore-and-sent-the-wrong-man-to-prison/ #BreakingNews #Impersonation #CodingHumor #TechDrama #TypoTrouble #HackerNews #ngated -
🚨 BREAKING: In a stunning twist, the underscore has been arrested for impersonating competent code! 💻🎩 Who knew a typo could do more damage than a hacker on Red Bull? 🙄🔍 #Oops #JusticeForTheInnocent
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/07/police-missed-one-underscore-and-sent-the-wrong-man-to-prison/ #BreakingNews #Impersonation #CodingHumor #TechDrama #TypoTrouble #HackerNews #ngated -
File this under - you should know better ... but this is why scammers keep trying!
Scofflaws try to impersonate FBI on social media.
Scenario 1 = scammers create fraudulent social media profiles and pages impersonating FBI personnel, and/or they infiltrate online groups for fraud victims and may attempt or contact victims directly.
Scenario 2 = victim is contact by fake FBI personnel and directs victims to a fake IC3 update page to report a scam or continues communicating through messaging apps.
NOTE: FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) doesn’t have a social media presence of any kind, and it doesn’t investigate crimes or offer to recover lost funds through social media.
“IC3 will never directly communicate with individuals via phone, email, social media, phone apps, online chat, or public forums.” https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/07/20/scammers-impersonate-fbi-on-social-media-prey-on-crime-victims/5275224 #FBI #Scammers #Scam #Fraud #FBI_IC3 #Internet #InternetCrime #CyberCrime #SocialMedia #Impersonation #Law #LawEnforcement
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File this under - you should know better ... but this is why scammers keep trying!
Scofflaws try to impersonate FBI on social media.
Scenario 1 = scammers create fraudulent social media profiles and pages impersonating FBI personnel, and/or they infiltrate online groups for fraud victims and may attempt or contact victims directly.
Scenario 2 = victim is contact by fake FBI personnel and directs victims to a fake IC3 update page to report a scam or continues communicating through messaging apps.
NOTE: FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) doesn’t have a social media presence of any kind, and it doesn’t investigate crimes or offer to recover lost funds through social media.
“IC3 will never directly communicate with individuals via phone, email, social media, phone apps, online chat, or public forums.” https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/07/20/scammers-impersonate-fbi-on-social-media-prey-on-crime-victims/5275224 #FBI #Scammers #Scam #Fraud #FBI_IC3 #Internet #InternetCrime #CyberCrime #SocialMedia #Impersonation #Law #LawEnforcement
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File this under - you should know better ... but this is why scammers keep trying!
Scofflaws try to impersonate FBI on social media.
Scenario 1 = scammers create fraudulent social media profiles and pages impersonating FBI personnel, and/or they infiltrate online groups for fraud victims and may attempt or contact victims directly.
Scenario 2 = victim is contact by fake FBI personnel and directs victims to a fake IC3 update page to report a scam or continues communicating through messaging apps.
NOTE: FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) doesn’t have a social media presence of any kind, and it doesn’t investigate crimes or offer to recover lost funds through social media.
“IC3 will never directly communicate with individuals via phone, email, social media, phone apps, online chat, or public forums.” https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/07/20/scammers-impersonate-fbi-on-social-media-prey-on-crime-victims/5275224 #FBI #Scammers #Scam #Fraud #FBI_IC3 #Internet #InternetCrime #CyberCrime #SocialMedia #Impersonation #Law #LawEnforcement
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File this under - you should know better ... but this is why scammers keep trying!
Scofflaws try to impersonate FBI on social media.
Scenario 1 = scammers create fraudulent social media profiles and pages impersonating FBI personnel, and/or they infiltrate online groups for fraud victims and may attempt or contact victims directly.
Scenario 2 = victim is contact by fake FBI personnel and directs victims to a fake IC3 update page to report a scam or continues communicating through messaging apps.
NOTE: FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) doesn’t have a social media presence of any kind, and it doesn’t investigate crimes or offer to recover lost funds through social media.
“IC3 will never directly communicate with individuals via phone, email, social media, phone apps, online chat, or public forums.” https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/07/20/scammers-impersonate-fbi-on-social-media-prey-on-crime-victims/5275224 #FBI #Scammers #Scam #Fraud #FBI_IC3 #Internet #InternetCrime #CyberCrime #SocialMedia #Impersonation #Law #LawEnforcement
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File this under - you should know better ... but this is why scammers keep trying!
Scofflaws try to impersonate FBI on social media.
Scenario 1 = scammers create fraudulent social media profiles and pages impersonating FBI personnel, and/or they infiltrate online groups for fraud victims and may attempt or contact victims directly.
Scenario 2 = victim is contact by fake FBI personnel and directs victims to a fake IC3 update page to report a scam or continues communicating through messaging apps.
NOTE: FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) doesn’t have a social media presence of any kind, and it doesn’t investigate crimes or offer to recover lost funds through social media.
“IC3 will never directly communicate with individuals via phone, email, social media, phone apps, online chat, or public forums.” https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/07/20/scammers-impersonate-fbi-on-social-media-prey-on-crime-victims/5275224 #FBI #Scammers #Scam #Fraud #FBI_IC3 #Internet #InternetCrime #CyberCrime #SocialMedia #Impersonation #Law #LawEnforcement
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Dead Ringers on BBC R4 is often hit and miss, but this weeks was very good imo. From Football to nailing Kussenberg, Gove and much else. Not subtle but fun. Two links, one to the original recording and one for people who might have problems accessing it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002yw8p
https://soundcloud.com/user-539616623/dead-ringers
#DeadRingers #BBC #R4 #Radio #Satire #Impersonation #Comedy #News
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Dead Ringers on BBC R4 is often hit and miss, but this weeks was very good imo. From Football to nailing Kussenberg, Gove and much else. Not subtle but fun. Two links, one to the original recording and one for people who might have problems accessing it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002yw8p
https://soundcloud.com/user-539616623/dead-ringers
#DeadRingers #BBC #R4 #Radio #Satire #Impersonation #Comedy #News
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Dead Ringers on BBC R4 is often hit and miss, but this weeks was very good imo. From Football to nailing Kussenberg, Gove and much else. Not subtle but fun. Two links, one to the original recording and one for people who might have problems accessing it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002yw8p
https://soundcloud.com/user-539616623/dead-ringers
#DeadRingers #BBC #R4 #Radio #Satire #Impersonation #Comedy #News
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Dead Ringers on BBC R4 is often hit and miss, but this weeks was very good imo. From Football to nailing Kussenberg, Gove and much else. Not subtle but fun. Two links, one to the original recording and one for people who might have problems accessing it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002yw8p
https://soundcloud.com/user-539616623/dead-ringers
#DeadRingers #BBC #R4 #Radio #Satire #Impersonation #Comedy #News
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Dead Ringers on BBC R4 is often hit and miss, but this weeks was very good imo. From Football to nailing Kussenberg, Gove and much else. Not subtle but fun. Two links, one to the original recording and one for people who might have problems accessing it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002yw8p
https://soundcloud.com/user-539616623/dead-ringers
#DeadRingers #BBC #R4 #Radio #Satire #Impersonation #Comedy #News
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Dutch Police Expose Suspects in Odido Hacking Case
The Dutch National Police have cracked the Odido hacking case, revealing that suspects impersonated an IT employee in a phone call with customer service, tricking the company into divulging sensitive info through phishing. This clever ruse led to a massive data theft in February.
#OdidoHackingCase #Telecommunications #Phishing #Impersonation #Netherlands
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https://www.europesays.com/africa/311373/ PLU Secretary General Fadil Warns Against Impersonators Using Organisation’s Nam #GenMuhooziKainerugaba #impersonation #PatrioticLeagueOfUganda #PLU #PLULeadership #PLUOfficials #PLUSecretaryGeneral #PLUStructures #TwallaFadil #Uganda
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‘I was on my way to pick up a fox that was actively dying’: Pocono Wildlife director defends herself after impersonation charge | Monroe County Area
STROUDSBURG, Pa. – As the executive director at The Wi…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Wildlife #animalrescue #disorderlyconduct #impersonation #janinetancredi #non-profit #pennsylvaniagamecommission #Science #slatebeltregionalpolice #wilderzatpoconowildlife #wildliferehabilitation
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/733868/ -
‘I was on my way to pick up a fox that was actively dying’: Pocono Wildlife director defends herself after impersonation charge | Monroe County Area
STROUDSBURG, Pa. – As the executive director at The Wi…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Wildlife #animalrescue #disorderlyconduct #impersonation #janinetancredi #non-profit #pennsylvaniagamecommission #Science #slatebeltregionalpolice #wilderzatpoconowildlife #wildliferehabilitation
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/733868/ -
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I wouldn't recommend trusting the @offsec community discord, and at this point, I can’t recommend their certs either.
Last night, I called out an account using a fake federal subdomain for their username as "larp:" "<first_name>.<last_name>.dni.gov." Threat actors frequently use fake government handles to cultivate unearned trust. Instead of validating a basic threat indicator, a mod reignited it this morning, defending the account with "you don't know if they are posing or not."
Exactly. I don't. That’s why I called it a larp instead of phishing. But a red team platform should understand zero-trust models, proactive threat identification, and defensive alignment. Instead, they operate on a purely reactive basis.
It's a terrible look to run off a cybersecurity major in a CAE-CD program for practicing human perimeter tactics. I don't need OffSec to get where I'm going. SANS/GIAC offers highly respected pentesting certs anyway, alongside industry-gold-standard DFIR (Digital Forensics & Incident Response) and specialized Cyber Defense pathways. I'll save my $1,600+ for an ecosystem that actually understands threat modeling.
Purple team is still the undisputed champion. I am not going to bow down to someone just because they are a community mod and operate in a complete silo.
#cybersecurity #purpleteam #offsec #opsec #APTs #impersonation #proactivedefense
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#Android Gets Fake Call Detection That Uses #RCS
#Phone by #Google wants to combat the "growing threat of #impersonation #scams " and protect Android users against "sophisticated, AI-powered #deepfake attacks" with fake call detection. [...] Fake call detection requires that both parties are on Android and use the Phone by Google app, while #GoogleMessages and #GoogleContacts also have to be installed. When a contact calls, their phone "sends a silent confirmation signal in real time to your device to verify the call is legitimate and truly coming from the contact's device." This digital handshake uses end-to-end #encrypted RCS (Rich Communication Services).
#encryption #e2ee #privacy #security -
#Android Gets Fake Call Detection That Uses #RCS
#Phone by #Google wants to combat the "growing threat of #impersonation #scams " and protect Android users against "sophisticated, AI-powered #deepfake attacks" with fake call detection. [...] Fake call detection requires that both parties are on Android and use the Phone by Google app, while #GoogleMessages and #GoogleContacts also have to be installed. When a contact calls, their phone "sends a silent confirmation signal in real time to your device to verify the call is legitimate and truly coming from the contact's device." This digital handshake uses end-to-end #encrypted RCS (Rich Communication Services).
#encryption #e2ee #privacy #security -
#Android Gets Fake Call Detection That Uses #RCS
#Phone by #Google wants to combat the "growing threat of #impersonation #scams " and protect Android users against "sophisticated, AI-powered #deepfake attacks" with fake call detection. [...] Fake call detection requires that both parties are on Android and use the Phone by Google app, while #GoogleMessages and #GoogleContacts also have to be installed. When a contact calls, their phone "sends a silent confirmation signal in real time to your device to verify the call is legitimate and truly coming from the contact's device." This digital handshake uses end-to-end #encrypted RCS (Rich Communication Services).
#encryption #e2ee #privacy #security -
#Android Gets Fake Call Detection That Uses #RCS
#Phone by #Google wants to combat the "growing threat of #impersonation #scams " and protect Android users against "sophisticated, AI-powered #deepfake attacks" with fake call detection. [...] Fake call detection requires that both parties are on Android and use the Phone by Google app, while #GoogleMessages and #GoogleContacts also have to be installed. When a contact calls, their phone "sends a silent confirmation signal in real time to your device to verify the call is legitimate and truly coming from the contact's device." This digital handshake uses end-to-end #encrypted RCS (Rich Communication Services).
#encryption #e2ee #privacy #security -
#Android Gets Fake Call Detection That Uses #RCS
#Phone by #Google wants to combat the "growing threat of #impersonation #scams " and protect Android users against "sophisticated, AI-powered #deepfake attacks" with fake call detection. [...] Fake call detection requires that both parties are on Android and use the Phone by Google app, while #GoogleMessages and #GoogleContacts also have to be installed. When a contact calls, their phone "sends a silent confirmation signal in real time to your device to verify the call is legitimate and truly coming from the contact's device." This digital handshake uses end-to-end #encrypted RCS (Rich Communication Services).
#encryption #e2ee #privacy #security -
Cybercriminals Impersonate IT Personnel in Targeted Attacks
Cybercriminals are now masquerading as IT personnel to launch targeted attacks, with the FBI warning that law firms and professional sectors are prime targets. This new tactic allows groups like the Silent Ransom Group to swiftly access and exfiltrate sensitive data, often without encrypting systems.
#Extortion #TargetedAttacks #SilentRansomGroup #DataExfiltration #Impersonation